Jairo Suarez dropped the ball in the hoop. The buzzer sounded. The Kennedy boys basketball team mobbed the floor to celebrate a heart-stopping 58-57 OT victory over Torrington. Spectators were left with two questions.

The first: How did Torrington not win that game? The second: How did Kennedy not lose?

The best comment came from Kennedy coach Armand Levasseur: "The best team did not win tonight."

But Kennedy did, and maybe we can tell you why.

The one word that best describes it all was wild. After a dull first 16 minutes, the second half and overtime were anything but. Three technical fouls were issued. There was a push, a shove and even one punch thrown.

Kennedy (15-2) played without starting guard Jaquan Love, for disciplinary reasons, and played the last 15 minutes of the game without Don Jarrett, who was involved in a third-quarter altercation. He received a second technical foul and was banished from the game.

The Raiders (8-8) played good basketball and were the team that gained the momentum boost after the brief tussle at 3:25 of the third.

"I thought we played really well," said Torrington coach Erin Gamari. "I thought we played with great energy. We did enough to win the game."

The Raiders enjoyed a big burst to start the fourth quarter and turned four steals into quick hoops by Zak Mancini (11 points) and John McCarthy (21 points, five assists, five steals). They led, 46-35, with 6:16 to play.

But then Torrington went scoreless for close to five minutes, and Kennedy charged back on the strength of good defense and strong full-court pressure. "We got them to play a faster game than they wanted to," was how Levasseur described it.

With Love out and Jarrett gone, everyone had a hand in it for Kennedy. Darryl Flowers (10 points, 13 rebounds) and Daquan Bowes (11 points, six steals) led the rally.

In regulation, Torrington had the edge when McCarthy scored on a brilliant baseline drive with 13.8 seconds left. But Bowes, the transfer form Hillhouse, beat the buzzer at the other end on a drive to the hoop. We were tied, 53-53.

In OT, it was all Torrington again, it seemed. The Raiders led by four with 1:03 to play. But those final 63 seconds were cruel.

Mancini could have made it a five-point game, but he missed a free throw. At the other end, Suarez scored a hoop and made a free throw. It was a one-point game, 57-56 Raiders, with 48.6 to play.

Mancini again missed at the free throw line, twice, but Torrington maintained possession on a tie-up after the miss. Still, Torrington could not finish it. On the inbounds, Suarez forced a tie-up. Now Kennedy had the ball, down one, with 16.6 seconds left.

Soon, there would be pandemonium.

The Eagles missed two shots in the final possession, a Bowes 3-pointer and a floating put-back by Flowers. But Suarez grabbed the rebound. He never came down with the ball. He softly dropped it in the hoop, the buzzer sounded and Kennedy had won.

"I tried to get the rebound first, before Darryl," Suarez said, "and once he got it I was kind of upset. When he went for the shot, I went as high as I could to get the rebound and put it in."

This Kennedy victory was impressive on many levels. The team played most of the game without two starters and fought back from almost certain defeat at least three times.

How did that happen?

"We talked it over and tried to stay focused," Suarez said, "and not let that moment get into our heads."

Torrington played well, was the best team on the floor for most of the night and lost.

Torrington, 7-7 in the Naugatuck Valley League, needed this victory in the race for a spot in the NVL tourney. Kennedy, which has beaten Torrington in two overtime games, found out a lot about a lot of different players.

"Our team is not based on one player," Suarez said. "We have different guys step up, night in and night out, who put up their numbers, rebound and play defense. That's what I love about my team."

Yep, it was just another typical, average, wild and wonderful night in the NVL.

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